Playoffs 2013Rangers try to solve power-play woes

Posted: Saturday, May 18, 2013 | 05:59 PM

Ryan Callahan of the New York Rangers carries the puck down the ice against the Boston Bruins in Game 1. Rangers coach John Tortorella said he expects more from his captain's line. (Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

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Back to the film room have gone the New York Rangers for two days, trying to figure out how to get their two-for-31 power play going against the Boston Bruins.

By Jay Greenberg, Special to CBC Sports

Back to the film room have gone the Rangers for two days, trying to figure out how to get their two-for-31 power play going.

Not
enough screening, not enough forechecking pressure to enable their set
up, not enough rotation of the participants and movement of the puck.
Round up the usual suspects, including, according to John Tortorella,
his leading scorer on left wing in these playoffs.

"I can't
figure [Carl Hagelin] out," the coach said Saturday. "I love the guy,
he's such an effective player but, as I said many times, he stinks on
the power play.

"I don't know why. I wish I could play him on the
power play. Every time I put him on, he stinks. I think he's too quick.
I think he's a jitterbug and he screws it up.

"But, again, I may
use him. I don't know. I love him. But the power play stinks, it's true
and that's why he may get an opportunity.

At practice Saturday, Tortorella showed the same lines and defence pairings he used in the 3-2 Game One loss.

"I'm
not a big adjustment guy," Tortorella said. "To me, it's not so much on
the ice. There are some other adjustments we have to make."

Meaning?

"I'm not going to tell you."

Tortorella did say the Hagelin-Derek Stepan-Ryan Callahan line "has to be better" if the Rangers are going to advance.

Meanwhile
Derick Brassard has a six-game point streak, even if his left wing,
Rick Nash, has no playoff goals. To Nash was where Brassard was going
with the puck that Chara tipped to send Patrice Bergeron and Brad
Marchand on the way to overtime glory in Game One.

"It was the
right play," Brassard said Saturday, a view that had been defended by
Tortorella one day before. "I just have to make it."Hankering for the truth

After
all the Bruins talk about having to create screens to beat Henrik
Lundqvist David Krejci expressed surprise that the Bruins two goals in
regulation were scored by defencemen when the goalie had unimpeded
views. But Lundqvist has beaten himself up more for failing to stop
Marchand's point-blank redirection on the two-on-one in overtime.

"You
have to be honest with yourself," he said. "But it was a pretty solid
game. The third goal is the one, I would play different. The other two
(by Chara and Torey Krug) were knuckle pucks, hard to react on them."

Vintage advice

Jaromir
Jagr's advice to all 41 year-olds taking a regular shift in the
playoffs: "The most important thing is you should feel better than the
guy you are playing against," he said. "You can trick the brain."

"You can't play the same game you played in 1990. If you drove the best car from 1990 right now, you would look stupid."

Jagr,
driving a lemon in Game One, had two shots in 23 minutes and seemed
more hindrance to linemates Marchand and Patrice Bergeron than help.
Jagr has four points in eight playoff games, which still is still three
more than Tyler Seguin, 20 years Jagr's junior. Seguin has one point
for the post season and had a giveaway in the final seconds of period
one that enabled Ryan McDonagh to get New York on the board.

Redden a possibility

Wade
Redden, the only one of three injured Bruin defencemen to skate with
the Saturday, said afterwards he would need another day to consider
himself a possibility for Sunday. Coach Claude Julien said it would be a
game time decision.

Since rookies Dougie Hamilton, Torey Krug
and Matt Bartkowski all played well in Game One, logic suggests there
would be no hurry for a sixth defenceman who, in turn, was in no hurry
to discuss his two years as a huge free-agent flop with the Rangers.

"I've
turned the page," said Redden, who spent two years in the AHL while on a
six-year, $39 million contract. "It was a change that was needed for
everyone."

Dennis Seidenberg (knee) skated before Saturday's
practice with a physical therapist, and has a chance to return in this
series. Andrew Ference (foot), likely will not.

Asked about playing 36-year-old Zdeno Chara for 38 minutes in Game One, Julien said: "To be honest, we don't have a choice."

The
Rangers' Marc Staal, who has backed off from practice for several days
after a recurrence of the blurred vision that had cleared well enough
for him to play 17 minutes in Game 4 of the Washington series, did not
practice Saturday after giving it a short go in an optional on Friday.
Not a good sign

Coincidence? Perhaps

Three of the four fouls the Rangers took in Game One that were penalized were committed against Rich Peverley.

But his game has bite

Turns
out Rangers defenceman John Moore lost six teeth when hit in the face
with a puck in Game One. "I feel fine," he said Saturday.

So
does Tortorella about the future of Moore, a dumped former No. 1 pick by
Columbus acquired with Brassard and Derek Dorsett at the trading
deadline for Marian Gaborik.

"I don't think he's afraid and
that's a really important note for a young defenceman," Tortorella said.
"I just love his skating, when there are some struggles with his
positioning, which is something that's going to take a while for him to
learn, he's able to cover because of his ability to skate.

"His
whole mental approach is to not test the waters, he's trying to make a
difference and he really gave me an opportunity in the first series to
bump him up to a top four. He got a little overwhelmed after we gave him
some minutes there so we bumped him back down but he's a guy that in a
couple of years down the road I'm hoping we're going to say that's a
hell of a deal, especially at that position."

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